I was challenged to open up this debate via social media whilst completing my Running Repairs course; a course to help identify and fix running injuries, causes and training errors.
I posted the question on Facebook and tagged a few of the runners in my community, the response was amazing…everything I had hoped for and the answer was…. Inconclusive!
I collated all the comments and have been looking at the literature around stretching and performance, the evidence is as varied as the responses on my Facebook post.
Firstly, I wanted to figure out why we stretch. What are the benefits of stretching and came across this article in a great blog on runnersconnect. (https://runnersconnect.net/expand-your-concept-of-flexibility-to-improve-as-a-runner/)
1. The first concept is of passive flexibility. This describes the ability of a muscle, ligament, or tendon ability to assume and hold an extended position whilst under an external force (such as your body weight). Such flexibility is often thought of (and assessed) as a “reach and hold” motion, such as bending at the waist to touch your toes while keeping your knees straight.
2. A second concept is your active flexibility. This is the range of motion you can achieve using your own strength with no external forces. An example would be lying on your back and extending your leg into the air to stretch your hamstring, without using your hands or a stretching strap to aid the motion.
3. The third concept is dynamic flexibility, which incorporates motion into the definition. For example, the range over which you can swing your leg forward defines your dynamic flexibility in your hip muscles.
Using these concepts, I tried to link them to what is required for running. The second two concepts are more associated with running and indeed running performance. Dynamic flexibility described in the third concept is more significant as a performance factor through its ability to impact your running economy and form.
Without diverting from the task, we have to think about the specificity of the human body, i.e. everyone generally has the same sets of muscles, but everyone’s muscles have a different story, a different history and a different requirement. I think with stretching there is evidence to say to stretch…
“Both static stretching and ballistic stretching increase range of motion, most likely as a result of enhanced stretch tolerance rather than changes in muscle elasticity. Four weeks of stretching maintain range of motion and stretch tolerance in the days after eccentric exercise.”
– La Roche & Connolly 2006
It could be argued from the above statement that stretching does increase range of motion (concept 1, see above), but does this stretching help with running and performance?
“Static stretching as part of a warm-up immediately prior to exercise has been shown detrimental to dynamometer-measured muscle strength (Herda Et Al 2008, Sekir et al 2010) and performance in running and jumping (Wilson et al 2010, Babault et al 2010) the loss of strength resulting from acute static stretching has been termed, “stretch-induced strength loss. (Kay et al 2010)”
So static stretching before running seems to have minimal or no benefit …
“On the basis of their meta-analysis of the muscle soreness studies, the authors observed, on average, a 2% reduction in soreness over the first 72 hours after exercise.” (Anderson 2005)
Is there anything that does help or improve performance in running?
“Studies of the relationship between dynamic flexibility (which is admittedly difficult to quantify) and running performance are hard to find, unfortunately.”
So from a physical aspect there is evidence that static stretching has little or no benefit, and there is not sufficient evidence to support dynamic stretching pre run.
But what about the psychological aspect of a warm up? I have been there at the start of a race and felt the need to run, stretch, jog, toilet, drills, fix my number exactly on the right way, tie my laces (double knot), drink water, eat a gel…. I need a warm up for my warm up…
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” – Aristotle
We have all been there where we have prepared, trained hard, waited on the start line and it hasn’t gone to plan. We have let the nerves get to us, we haven’t stuck to the plan, and we have not executed what we had thought we were going to do.
“Failure can occur when a strongly motivated athlete consciously processes task execution, due to an increase in anxiety, leading to a rapid deterioration in the execution of habitual processes, and therefore, substandard performance” (Hall, 2004)
So would pre race stretching or a stretching routine included in our training runs give us the desired effect from Aristotle? Building a habit that can only, at worse, have no physical effect on performance (dynamic stretching) but a massive psychological effect on performance.
Reverting back to the Facebook post there were a wide variety of routines and opinions on pre-race and training run stretching. There was a common theme and many of the same opinion as the static stretching literature, that it offers little benefit. Much like the evidence, people have their own routines ranging from drills, dynamic stretching, running for set time, to nothing…. I think runners at races do more than they think, especially with pre race nerves. I have not seen any runner turn up and walk to the start line, wait for the bang and then start to run.
Final Thought…
So what do I think?
I think as we train, work through a block of training or over the course of a season; our bodies go through different levels of tightness, fatigue or injury. I fully believe we need to be very responsive to how our body feels pre-race, pre-run, post race or post run…and be able to manage it. Training smart, but recovering smarter! Listening to the body as it whispers before having to deal with it when it screams. Knowing what to do, when to do it and the effect it has on the body.
For example if before a race I waken with a stiff mid back, I will include thoracic mobility exercises in the morning of the run, before I start the run and immediately after the run…. whether the back remains stiff or not after. I go through my body like a mini MOT…neck, shoulders, arms, thoracic spine, lower back, pelvis, hips, knees, calves, feet. I do it in the morning and I do it again before a run / race, I know what it should feel like when things are fine and when it doesn’t feel right. I do a small run as a heart raiser, go through the ranges required for the run, then go through my MOT again…has it changed, if not I focus again on that area, through specific drills, specific movements relating to running. Finally before the run/race I give myself the confidence that I have got my body feeling like it is ready to run, I have screened for my personal abnormalities for the phase of training I am in, what is different from my last run, addressed it and given myself the psychological and physical boost I feel I need before running.
Do I do this in every training run? No I try to do this only in tempo runs, races and reps sessions. Speed / pace increases the intensity and has been directly related to injury prediction. I feel my longer slower runs I can go through the mini MOT in my head during the initial part of the run and if something feels odd address it with changing cadence, activation or route choice.
What we do is entirely individual; it has to work for you. I challenge you all to listen to your body through a block of training, what changes? How do I address changes in my body pre/post run? In my next blog I will look at how the next run starts in the recovery from the last run.
Thanks for reading
Run Long and Prosper
James
SPEAR:RUN